The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum is the white spiral building on Fifth Avenue at 89th Street, facing Central Park. Designed by Frank Lloyd Wright and opened in 1959, the Guggenheim Museum is as famous for its architecture as for its art: inside, a single ramp curls up around an open atrium under a glass dome, and the exhibitions are hung along its walls. Even if modern art is not your thing, the building alone makes the trip to the Upper East Side worthwhile.
Why visit the Guggenheim Museum
Wright spent many years on the design, and the result still looks unlike anything around it. From the street, the building widens as it rises, an inverted spiral against the straight lines of Fifth Avenue. Inside, the ramp lets you see across the rotunda to the artworks on other levels, so the space feels shared and open rather than broken into separate rooms. The building is a UNESCO World Heritage Site as part of a group of Wright's works.
The rotunda is mostly given over to temporary exhibitions, which change through the year. The permanent collection is shown in side galleries, including the Thannhauser Collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works and a strong holding of Vasily Kandinsky, whom Solomon Guggenheim collected in depth.
Getting to the Guggenheim by subway
The nearest station is 86 St on the 4, 5 and 6 lines, under Lexington Avenue. From there it is about a ten-minute walk: head west along 86th Street past Park and Madison Avenues to Fifth Avenue, then turn north for three blocks. The museum is on the east side of Fifth Avenue between 88th and 89th Streets.
The Q line's 86 St station on Second Avenue is another option, though it is a longer walk. Many visitors also simply walk up through Central Park or along Fifth Avenue from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, about 15 minutes south.
Guggenheim tickets
General admission tickets are sold on the official Guggenheim website, guggenheim.org, with timed entry. There are concessions for students and seniors, and children under a certain age usually enter free. The museum has long offered a reduced or pay-what-you-wish period on some evenings; the details change, so check the website for current days and how to reserve. Booking ahead is wise for popular exhibitions.
How to see the museum
There are two schools of thought. Wright intended visitors to take the lift to the top and stroll down the gentle slope, and many people still do it that way because it is easier on the legs. Some exhibitions are designed to be seen from the bottom up, in which case the museum will usually say so. Either way, the ramp is long, so take your time and stop at the parapet to look across the rotunda.
Highlights
- The rotunda: stand on the ground floor and look straight up at the skylight for the classic photo.
- The Thannhauser Collection: works by artists such as Cézanne, Degas, Manet, Picasso and Van Gogh.
- Kandinsky: the museum's founding collection was built around abstract art, and Kandinsky's work is central to it.
- The current exhibition: the spiral changes completely between shows, so it is worth checking what is on before you go.
Best time to visit the Guggenheim Museum
Weekday mornings are quietest. Weekends and the reduced-price evenings can be very busy, with lines on the ramp itself. Note that the museum is closed on some days of the week, so confirm opening hours on the official site before you set out.
A visit typically takes one and a half to two hours. The museum is smaller than the Met or MoMA, which makes it easy to pair with another museum on the same day.
Nearby on the same subway stop
The Guggenheim sits on Museum Mile, the stretch of Fifth Avenue lined with museums facing Central Park:
- Metropolitan Museum of Art: at 82nd Street, a short walk south.
- Neue Galerie: German and Austrian art, including Klimt, at 86th Street.
- Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum: in the Carnegie Mansion at 91st Street.
- Central Park Reservoir: the running track around the water is right across Fifth Avenue.
To see more around this station, visit the Guggenheim on Around the Metro, or browse every stop on the New York subway map.